The Story in the Woods
by kissmess
Summary: Popuri should have known better, but ghost stories are scary no matter how old you are. Her friends even seemed to believe him. Popuri-centric, one-shot, Based on FoMT.


A/N: I'm not sure where this came from, but I had fun writing it! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :) Let me know what you think!

Appreciation: To all writers everywhere and on this site. Thank you for making my day brighter, and keep writing everyone ^_^

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harvest Moon, Beauty and the Beast, or anything else that might be mentioned.

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I was skeptical of course, not only because it sounded bizarre, but because my source was coming from an eight year old boy. Not to mention the fact that his older sister had warned me earlier that day that Stu had an overactive imagination, and that he loved to play pranks on everyone.

I could recall a few instances where I had heard rumors about what a nuisance he could be. There were talks of him pulling hair, or hiding bugs around the house to scare his older sister. The worst however, just might be the time he somehow convinced Ann to try some 'special cherry soda he got from the mainland'. It turned out to be cough syrup he found one day at the clinic when he was waiting for Elli, his older sister to get off work. How he knew that Ann's weakness was her curiosity for all things that came overseas is beyond me, but it was certainly a sight to see when Ann's face turned from excitement to disgust the second she took a sip of the curious red 'soda'.

Ann still tries to claim that she knew it was cough syrup. That she was just playing along to make him happy.

I don't believe her for a second.

Stu's wide eyes were staring into mine, with an innocence only a child could possess plastered across his face. I felt bad that I could only hear the words that Elli told me earlier that day about him running through my head. I really didn't trust what he was saying because of it.

If she hadn't warned me, I might have believed him despite all the pranks the boy was known for. I mean, a small part of me was a little frightened, but I did not want to admit that to _him_ of all people. I didn't want to get outwitted by an eight year old boy. Everyone in town already knew I was a bit gullible, always the last one to get why a joke was funny. I didn't need the whole town to now know that Stu, _who was already known for his pranks_, got the best of me too.

"I'm telling you Popuri, I saw it!" I felt my eyebrow rise, I didn't want to believe it. I wouldn't. "Popuurrriii." He said in that drawn out whiny voice of his, "You have to believe me, I told Elli but she thinks May and I have just been scaring each other with too many ghost stories lately."

"I've walked in the woods by Jack's farm hundreds of times, and I never heard or saw anything like that before." I tried to sound confident, to put a brave face on for him since he really did seem spooked. Never mind the fact that I didn't like to walk in the forest at night anyway, ghosts or not it was creepy in the dark.

Stu didn't need to know that though.

"Popuri!" He said as he stomped his foot on the ground, "Everyone knows the woods are creepy!" I winced from the sudden outburst, wondering if I should have put more thought into this when Elli had asked me if I could watch him. He was a lot to handle, and it had only been about hour alone with him so far.

"Well, maybe they are a little creepy, but they certainly aren't... I mean, they can't be..." I didn't want to say the word, but I knew I had to. "they aren't_ haunted_, Stu."

He threw his hands up in the air, "No one believes me." He said as he crossed his arms and sat on the ground. "You're being dumb."

"Hey! Don't call me that!" A hand went to my hip as I glared at him. I was really starting to not like him.

"Well you are, you don't believe me!" It took everything in me to remember that he was just a bratty eight year old, to not just stomp off and walk away from him, to remind myself that I still had another two hours with him before I could return him to his sister and get him out of my hair.

"Well, maybe if you didn't lie about everything all the time, your story would be more believable." I shot back at him, "I mean, really? You expect me to believe that a ghost, who might be Jack's grandfather, is haunting the woods around his farm?"

"May and Mary believe me."

Mary?

Mary was probably one of the most levelheaded people on the whole island. No, let me set this straight, Mary_ is_ the most levelheaded person on the entire island.

Whenever I have a problem she always has the best advice, or knows exactly what book to look in to find the best plausible and logical answer. My brother thinks it's manipulative to use the written word to solve your real-life problems, but I don't think because she once convinced my brother's girlfriend that anyone could fall in love with anyone by showing her excerpts of Beauty and the Beast, doesn't mean she was trying to manipulate his girlfriend into thinking _he was a beast._

It's not her fault that Karen avoided him for a couple weeks before she could come to terms with the fact that he was indeed the beast to her beauty. I mean, they're officially together now, aren't they? His time of misery and worry of whether or not Karen would ever talk to him again was definitely not Mary's fault.

There was _no way_ that Mary, _Mary, _of all people would believe Stu without good reason. Her judgment was _sound._ I would trust her with my life. If Mary believed him, then... well, this situation could then possibly pass as terrifying.

The woods couldn't really be haunted? Could they?

I looked down at his stubborn form, still not looking at me with his arms crossed. "I thought you said no one believes you." He didn't look at me. "Mary believes the woods are haunted?"

"Yeah, because _she _isn't dumb."

"Stop calling me that!" I said getting more and more irritated, I wasn't one to normally be like this, but Stu was really getting on my nerves. I let out a long sigh in the silence between us. "Let's go then." I said trying to pull him with me, wincing at the touch of his sticky hand. I instantly regretted and wondered why I thought giving him candy earlier was a good idea.

"Where are we going?" He said as we walked in the direction of the library.

"To find out if you're telling the truth, to see if Mary really believes you." I still didn't want to admit it to him, but if Mary really believed him, I might just have a harder time not believing his story. I didn't want anyone to think I was gullible but if Mary believed him too... then his story just might be fact.

"-this whole thing is ridiculous." I heard Mary saying as we walked into the library, bells chiming behind us as we opened the door. The smell of pencil shavings and erasers filled my nose. I never understood how Mary could stand to stay inside with these books all day.

Mary and Ann both looked our way as we walked over to them, "Popuri! Stu!" Ann said brightly, and I smiled back at her, momentarily forgetting why we were there.

There was a look on Mary's face that I couldn't quite read. "Anything I can help you two with?"

"YES." Stu said with exasperation in his voice, "Tell her the woods are haunted!"

Mary had an all knowing look in her eye, letting a moment pass between the four of us before she spoke, "There have been rumors."

A chill ran up my spine as she spoke, I didn't want to believe it. Ghosts? In Mineral Town? Haunted woods? "You can't be serious?" I could only hope the three of them didn't hear the tremor in my voice.

Mary leaned in closer, "Apparently, Jack has been hearing wailing in the middle of the night outside his farm." My eyes grew wide at her words, "He thought that it was his cow at first, but every time he went to walk outside... it would stop." She took in a breath as she pushed up her glasses a bit, "A few nights ago, the sound started again, the wailing, it was louder then ever before, and it didn't stop. He walked outside and went to his barn..." I was on her every word, goose bumps crawling up every inch of my arms, "but his cow was sound asleep."

"R-Really?" I said, a bit scared as I head Stu saying 'I told you so' somewhere off to the right of me.

"Couldn't it have just been the wind?" Ann said, and the logic part of my brain kicked in. The wind, yes, that must have been what he was hearing.

Mary shrugged, "Jack swears there was no wind that night. And also..."

I couldn't take the suspense, "What? Something else?"

"Well, it could have been anything... but he says he saw a weird..._ 'shadow thing'_ running off his farm when he came back out of the barn."

"What!" Ann exclaimed with a concerned look on her face, "Gotz was talking about seeing weird shadows out of the corner of his eye the other night at the Inn. And now that I think more about it, he also said someone keeps knocking on his door at odd hours of the night." She spoke quickly, but I easily kept up with her.

"What's weird about someone knocking on his door?" I said, almost afraid to know the answer.

Ann took in a breath, "When he opens the door, there is never anyone there!" I gasped, overwhelmed from all this new information. Gotz lived in the woods pretty close to Jack's farm, so Ann's story matched up pretty well against Stu and Mary's.

There was silence between us, and I started to wonder about everything that had been happening in the woods by Gotz's house and Jack's farm. It was creepy, and weird, and I didn't like it. Mineral town had always been safe before now.

I wanted to run home and hide under the blankets on my bed.

"We have to catch the ghost in the act! We need proof!" Stu said loudly, breaking the silence between us girls.

"Count me out." Mary said quickly, "The rumors are fun, but I don't want to find out if it's real or not."

Ann shook her head, "Yeah, neither do I." she said with her long braid swinging behind her head from the movement.

I remember telling Stu no as well at that moment, I really did. Honestly.

A blur of events happened next, which ultimately brought me exactly to where Stu had claimed that he saw the ghost. I still don't know how he convinced me to go to the woods with him, but there I was, terrified the entire time I walked beside him and his friend May in the dark.

I can honestly say that I had never experienced so much fear in my life. Things like this just didn't happen where I lived. It was a quiet town, and things of this nature were practically unheard of.

_"Popuri!" _

I turned, my eyes searching in the darkness for Stu. He had just been standing _right there._ He was snapping pictures with an old Polaroid camera he had found under his grandma's bed, insistent he'd be able to see a ghost in the pictures.

"May, did you see where he went?" I said reeling around to see her missing as well. My heart raced. This was bad. Really bad. _I lost both of them? Ohmygodohmygod. _Elli is going to kill me, and May's grandfather! I started to run.

"May?" I yelled, "Stu?" Trees were passing me by, brush and twigs cracking beneath my feet with every step, I could feel branches scratching my arms as I ran through them in the woods. I yelled their names again before I stopped, breathing heavy, staring around the clearing in all directions. It was dark, and I couldn't hear or see anything.

_Click._

The sound of a Polaroid camera going off caught my attention off to the left. "Stu?" I said more quiet then I had planned, "Stu?" _Click._

_Click._

_Click._

Terrified, I took a step in the direction of the sound. "Stu? Say something if that's you!" _Click. _What was that sound? Was it really his camera?

_"_This isn't funny." I said, the terror evident in my voice. "Please." _Click._ "Stu?"

That's when I heard a wail, and it definitely wasn't the wind. Tears started to sting at the corners of my eyes, my breathing haggard as I backed away, "Stu..." I head myself say in a voice I didn't recognize as my own. I kept walking backwards, backwards.

_Click. "_POPURI!" Something grabbed me from behind and I screamed, instantly trying to hit and kick whoever grabbed me before they turned me around.

Kai?

"Why'd you do that?" I said slapping him on the arm, thankful he was there.

"Hey, you okay?" he said, pulling me close to him.

"No, I can't find Stu and May, and also-" _Click._ I tensed up at the sound, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" he said, rubbing his face in the side of my neck, "And don't worry, they're around here somewhere."

_Click. "_It sounds like it's coming from over there!" I pointed in the direction, glad that's Kai was still holding me close.

"Let's check it out then." He said as he let me go and walked ahead of me, looking back at me when I didn't move, "Afraid?" he said with a smile plastered across his face.

"No." I said defiantly.

He laughed, "Come here." He held out his hand, and I grabbed it, anxious to stay in contact with him.

Kai and I had always had a thing for each other, everyone deeming him as my unofficial boyfriend that got thrown away at the end of each summer. You see, he ran a restaurant on the beach during the summer months on the island. He went back to the mainland during the other seasons, and despite what everyone else says I don't _hate _him the other 3 seasons out of the year. I might miss him a lot, and cry, and maybe call him names while he's gone but he will always hold a special place in my heart. It's not my fault I do harmless flirting with Jack while he's away. Jack and I are just friends, he understands me, and no, he isn't just nice to me because of ulterior boy motives.

I was so relieved that Kai was holding my hand at that moment, even though _It was weird_ to run into Kai in the woods... of all places... at this odd time of night...

We continued our walk to where the sound was in silence, "Hey Kai..." I said as we got closer to the trees, "What are you doing out here anyway?"

He didn't say anything.

"Kai?" He just pulled me along, and I suddenly felt like his tight hold on my hand was a death trap. "Kai? Kai, stop. Stop. Stop! Let me go!" He grabbed me, pushing me through an opening between the trees and I screamed.

I heard someone else gasp, felt something grab my leg, and I kicked at them before I heard something that stopped me in my tracks.

"Happy Birthday!"

I opened my eyes, and turned my head from my position on the ground, my face immediately growing hotter as I saw almost all of my friends standing around me in the darkness.

Happy Birthday?

A few lanterns got turned on, and a few people broke out into laughter as I slowly sat up. "W-what?" Stu and May were standing right close to me.

"Hah! We totally got you!" Stu said happily, throwing a fist in the air.

"What?" I said again, confused as I got a better look at everyone standing around me.

"I wanted to surprise you really good this year." I heard Kai say from behind me as he bent down to help me up.

"This was all a set up?" I said, in disbelief that Kai could get everyone in on this.

"Happy Birthday Po." He kissed the side of my head.

_Are you kidding me? _

He laughed, "Alright everyone!" he said suddenly, and the group started busting out a very off tune version of Happy Birthday, the guys in the back be the loudest of them all.

Ann made her way from the back of the group to the front during the song, holding a huge pink cake in her hands. "Make a wish." She laughed, "And don't be mad, this was our best surprise yet." she winked, and I continued to stare down at the cake with the candles burning bright in front of me.

I smiled, deciding there was time to get the details from everyone later. I would forgive them, _eventually_. Besides, after the surprise birthday party I threw Kai last year... I guess I deserved it.

I bent down towards the cake, taking in a deep breath as I thought about my wish.

I knew _exactly_ what to wish for.

When every candle blew out in a single breath, I smiled_._

_Kai' was going to regret this. His birthday was at the end of the summer, and I was ready. _

What I wasn't ready for was the sudden yelp I heard behind me, or the fear that stuck across Ann's face when I looked back up from my cake.

There was silence between everyone.

The only sound being a loud, moaning wail coming from the distance.


End file.
